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Monster’s Future

Hunting jobs on the Internet has become a global phenomenon. Monster is the leader in this space. (It bought JobsAhead in India, recently.) Barron’s writes about the company:

Monster is the leading online employment Website globally, with a No. 1 share in Germany, No. 2 positions in France and the U.K., and the top spot in India. “Monster has tremendous assets. It’s a dominant consumer brand,” says Jim Treacy, a senior executive at Monster from 1994 through 2002.

“The kids are on Monster, and employers will go where the kids are,” Treacy says. By “kids,” he means younger workers, who have grown up with computers, are comfortable using the Internet and read newspaper less than their parents do. Monster’s Website reportedly has become obligatory viewing among college-grad job seekers, and others hip to the online job-hunting scene.

Based on revenues, Monster controls about half the online job-recruitment market, but just 10% of the combined online and print market, which could hit $6 billion this year. “Everyone asks us about our competitors,” McKelvey says. “We have two fine online competitors, but our biggest competitor is newspapers.”

Monster is much larger than either CareerBuilder or the No. 3 player online, Yahoo!’s HotJobs. CareerBuilder’s revenues are running at a $250 million-plus annual rate and HotJobs’ sales may total $100 million this year. Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel says HotJobs is a “key part” of his company, but Yahoo! doesn’t make public HotJobs’ revenue or profits.

Among Monster.com’s attractions is a huge database of 39 million rsums, which is growing at the rate of 40,000 daily. Monster has spent heavily to develop its brand, featuring a distinctive green Monster logo and its current tag line, “Today’s the day.” It has advertised on the Super Bowl, and is also an Olympics sponsor.

Employers seeking new workers via Monster can post a job listing, which now costs $365 for a single 60-day submission. Large firms get volume discounts, paying around $100 per job posting. Alternately, employers can buy access to Monster’s database. Looking for an accountant in Peoria? For $400, you can buy two weeks of access to Monster’s rsum database for that part of Illinois. If that seems pricey, consider the cost of print ads. A seven-day help-wanted listing in the New York Times costs at least $743, and that’s just for a four-line ad. Most print employment ads are double that length.